In modern maternity hospitals, it is customary to maintain neonatal infants in a separate nursery room and to carry them to and from their mothers' rooms as needed for breast feeding or for being held. At times, neonatal infants are taken from their mothers when the mothers are in a drowsy or somnolent state. It is important for the peace of mind of the mothers that they know who it is who is taking their infants from them and to identify them as individuals rather than merely as anonymous staff members or nurses. Nevertheless, identification badges or tags are not worn, in many cases, by persons who care for neonatal infants because of the fear of scratching the infants, while they are being held or cared for, by the sharp and hard edges of the usual identification badges.
Satisfactory substitute badges have not been found; and nursery room staff persons have been performing their functions without badges, although it is recognized that this is less than optimum.